Got together with the GF after work but she didn't want to go too far out of the way, so we were looking for a place near the Taipei Train Station. Taiwan Storyland is in the basement of the KMall across the street from the train station. GF and her sister had wanted to check it out, and it wasn't as if we had any better ideas.
The place attempts to recreate the atmosphere of the Taiwan of the '50s. Recreated posters are plastered on the walls: wanted ads, advertising, and some good old propaganda. The storefronts had display cases filled with artifacts from the period mixed with recreations. There wasn't as many people there early on a weekday evening, which made the empty alleys a bit seem a bit creepy, but it picked up once the dinner crowd started to filter in. The movie theater was cool, showing old movies, albeit on a modern digital projector rather than the old-school film projector displayed in the lobby.
Of course, the right thing to do was to eat at the street-food place. Except here we had a gleaming stainless steel kitchen rather than a propane burner on a cart. They serve up specialties from various places, and they make sure to include Japanese on the menu for the tourists. A bit expensive for street-food, but the entry ticket cost can count toward the food so it ended up being okay. The fried tofu-skin meat roll was good, my soup noodles and GF's sticky rice cake were okay. The food's probably not worth a special trip for, but if you're there on a visit there's no need to run out for real food, either.
台灣故事館 (Taiwan Storyland)
台北忠孝西路一段50號B2 (K Mall地下)
02-2383-0368